1.

1 Characteristics of Living Things Name:

Living things are made up of cells

¡ Cell: the basic structural and functional unit of life. They have structures that enable them to carry
out life processes.
¡ Life processes include:
¡ Chemical reactions to help obtain and use energy
¡ Break down nutrients
¡ Build molecules
¡ Grow
¡ Copy genetic material
¡ Repair injuries
¡ Excretes wastes

Living things take in nutrients

¡ Nutrients are substances that living things need but cannot make for themselves.
¡ Usually obtained from food
¡ Consumers eat other organisms for food (ex. Humans)
¡ Producers produce their own food (ex. Plants)

Living things use energy

¡ Energy is used to carry out life processes, it comes from the food consumed or produced
¡ Cellular respiration is the process where energy is released from food
¡ Energy is used for many purposes (ex. Growing, response to changes, movement, sleep)

Living things produce waste that must be removed

¡ All cells have structures that store and remove waste
¡ Waste are substances that are harmful if they are not removed

Unicellular vs Multicellular organisms

¡ Unicellular organisms are ONE cell organisms (ex. Bacteria and some protists)
¡ Waste is removed through the outer membrane or from a structure called a vesicle
¡ Multicellular organisms are made up of many cells
¡ Waste is removed from structures or systems of the organism

Living things respond to stimuli

¡ A stimulus is anything that causes a living thing to react in a certain way
¡ Living things respond to internal stimuli- things that occur inside their bodies (ex. Stomach
growling, feeling thirsty)
¡ They also respond to external stimuli from their surroundings (ex. Dog ears flick up to noise at the
door)
1.1 Characteristics of Living Things Name:

Living things grow

¡ All living things grow by increasing in size, or in the number or cells, or BOTH

Living things reproduce

¡ Organisms reproduce in different ways:
¡ Unicellular bacteria divide to produce two identical cells. They have the same genetic
material.
¡ Other organisms must have a mate to reproduce. The offspring differ from parents.

Unicellular vs Multicellular organisms

¡ Unicellular organisms
¡ Have structures to sense and respond to changes in their environment
¡ Grow by increasing in size
¡ Multicellular organisms
¡ Multicellular animals have sense organs and/or a nervous system to respond to stimuli
¡ Grow by increasing number of cells